Well I agree that I prefer the style of the first one and would love to find it in a more coppery finish.... but I need the 3" ones and I have looked and looked and cannot find them. If anyone has seen them PuLEEZZ let me know. I keep going back to that style, and they do have them in a more coppery finish, but not in my needed size. At this point in the day, I think I will likely not return them ( at least not yet).. Some of these things that we just fixate on are just not as important as they seem at times. I found the first ones at yourhomesupply.com thanks to someone on these forums. there was a whole thread about harware places. They shipped so quickly and were very helpful on the phone. The second ones I just stumbled on today from ahturf.com.I know nothing about them, but they came up in a froogle.com search.

Dear Busymom03, You’re very focused on Aesthetics and that’s important. But Great Kitchen Design includes both the aesthetic component, and the functional component. Your kitchen’s purpose is to provide food and beverage service for your home. Whether you cook or not doesn’t mean your kitchen shouldn’t. Your kitchen layout should produce a kitchen that is beautiful, beautifully efficient, and for the long haul. Unless you’re planning on re doing this kitchen in 8 to 12 years when your appliances start to fail? Aesthetically the large massing (pantry, Ovens, Ref/F) has become very popular among designers and the Kitchen Remodeling Industry is all about what’s trendy. Granted “It Looks Cool” but it’s performance aesthetically and functional are not the best option for you. When this Look Fades your kitchen’s aesthetic value will plummet to zero, because your kitchen will become dated (so 2010-2020) just like the 60’s, 70’s, 80s’, 90’s, etc. did and this trend will continue (unfortunitly for consumers). Be careful, use clasical elemets that are not treny and won't fall out of fashion, or you’ll end up where you started, with a kitchen that’s dated and dysfunctional and you'll want to replace. Functionally, I don’t know if you realize this but you have many functional problems built into this kitchen layout. Both your ovens and your refrigerator are in gathering space. That’s two of your four major appliances. The Ref/F you will be in and out of constantly. If there is seating on the island and it’s occupied getting into and out of your Ref/F may be more work than you’d like it to be. When you entertain your family and guests will be standing in front of your ovens and ref/f and you won’t easily be able to get into them. Which will make entertaining your own personal kitchen nightmare. There is no counter top to the left or right of the ovens with island seats occupied you won’t be able to turn and use the island top, and the cabinet adjacent to the range is about 21” wide when you’ll need 27” to 30” to stage what’s going into and coming out of your ovens. Also that counter may be occupied when using your range top. There is no counter to the left of your Ref door, and to use the counter to the right you’ll have to contend with Island seating while you have to back up after you take the items you need (just what you can carry) back up and kick the Ref door shut to get to that counter. Doing something simple like making a sandwich without counter top will be a lot more work and take more time. To use the island or counter to the right of the range top you’ll have the same problems as you have with your oven(s). I don’t think your intention is to live like this making your day to day life much more difficult than it has to be. Your range top (range) area seems to be fine. I don’t think you have large enough wall cabinets to hold all your dishes and glasses on your clean up wall. Unless you have dishes stored in drawers somewhere hopefully close to your sink. Overall design…not a fan of wall papering a kitchen with cabinetry (even though it’s in my best interest if I’m selling cabinetry). When the Wow New wears off it’s boring to look and see cabinetry everywhere. Closet pantries break up the monotony of cabinetry everywhere, give you an opportunity to bring in color, are less expensive to build. And you can store items floor to ceiling making them much more flexible than pantries built in cabinetry. How Does You Kitchen Work? “A Place For Everything & Everything In Its Place” Everyone should do this exercise to make certain their kitchen works. Make a Kitchen Item Inventory Checklist (or download ours) fill it in. Now with your interior elevations and layout handy, locate everything you own. By writing them on your plan and interior elevations, Following These Rules… There are 5 Basic Tasks every residential kitchen performs. Storage, Preparation, Cooking/Baking, Providing Service, & Clean Up. The Appliance Dictates the Task and its Location, The Task Dictates the Kitchen Items Required to perform the Task, The Kitchen Items Dictate the Cabinetry Configuration and Accessories best suited to Store & Retrieve those Items Efficiently. You’ll want to store the kitchen items you’ll use most as close to the appliance you’ use them at as possible. To increase efficiency, and if you do a good job your kitchen will work intuitively. As A Bonus: No More Slave To Your Kitchen because you’re the only one that knows where everything is, because you adapted to the kitchen you inherited when you moved in. Do this excercise and you will not have to adapt to another kitchen, or realize your mistakes after your kitchen is done. SIMPLE. Here is a form for you to use (it’s what we use) to tell how well your kitchen performs and if you have all of your bases covered. http://www.luxurykitcheninteriordesign.com/kitchen-design-monthly-17/ Also, another tool our Kitchen Design Functionality Test will help you with determining how efficiently your arrangement of appliances, cabinetry, and kitchen items works. And if not working well, in taking the test, you’ll discover how to improve its performance. http://www.luxurykitcheninteriordesign.com/kitchen-design-functionality-test-5/ Demand Better Performance Joe Brandao Kitchen Performance Consultant

My thoughts are that you should probably do some more research. You can start on this website, by searching for threads that use the terms luan, joists, flooring, subfloor, acclimatization. I would wish to become pretty educated, at least educated enough to ask smart questions of your installers. I researched the heck out of my flooring project (I'm on concrete slab), and decided to purchase the flooring from a local, extremely reputable flooring store (many excellent Yelp reviews) to have leverage so that the store AND the manufacturer are more likely to stand behind the product AND their install. They do their own install, and I requested (and got) their "A Team" installers. I had visited several stores, and what I liked about the store I chose was how patient they were with answering my many, many questions. And they went out of their way to offer me options I hadn't thought of. Like this: they mitered (is it called "picture framing?) around my raised hearth--coolio! Like this: they made sure that where the wood floor meets the tile, there is no transition strip. Like this: they commented that where we have 2 steps up to our front door, that the step was rather narrow, and they could "beef it up" quite easily, making it a wider step. And they did so for no extra charge. Like this: they include for no extra charge, moving of all the furniture out of the rooms, and then back in. Like this: I chose my new baseboards, and they accommodated my request to have no quarter round, which requires more precise cuts near the walls. And those are really just asthetic concerns. You really need to start with functional concerns, which the experts here can help you with. As much as a hassle as new floor installation is, and expensive, you want to get it done right.

Patricia Colwell Consulting, Just to clarify, the tree that is the problem is the one on the left/east side adjacent to where the pool would be if perpendicular to the house. The ficus tree looks like a hedge in the photos but it is actually 30' ficus that is spread the along the side of my yard. The Camphor tree on the right/west side is not a problem according to an arborist I consulted. Lisa Dipiro It is actually easier to see the pool if it is in the back of the yard, as the patio is lower than the house and the main house area is at the top level of the deck, with the bedrooms at the lower level deck (which is still above the patio). So you can only see the shallow end of the pool if on the side if you are on the patio or looking over the railing of the deck. thinkdesignlive Yes, I've used a tarp both ways. I do feel like 2' is tight - I could make the pool narrower by a foot, but I was concerned that the kids jumping might hit the other side if it is only 11 feet wide. Do you think this is a valid concern? The yard between the house and the pool in the back would still be 18-20' deep x 45' wide or so (not counting the hedges/plants). So we would still have yard - but is that a weird proportion vs. a 32'x31' square of grass?